Mid-Derbyshire Motor Club out in force again

A total of thirteen members were there, five competing and eight marshalling. The one-day event consisted of eight stages covering a total of forty-two miles around a disused airfield. Although the stage set up team got drenched on Saturday the weather was much better on Sunday.

Seventy cars were entered and sixty-nine started. James Gratton-Smith along with his navigator Arwel Jenkins was the highest seeded member starting at 15 in his MG ZR.

Next was Lee Ryan with his navigator Paul Webster starting at 35 in his Ford Escort Mark 2. Car 38 was an unusual sight on a rally, it was a rotary engine Mazda RX8 and Tom Murphy was navigating for Davy Dalton. Car 65 was a Ford Fiesta and Jake Simms was navigating for James Easson.

James Gratton-Smith competing against a number of more powerful cars ran well and got as high as 13th overall but eventually had to retire on stage seven with a broken drive shaft.

Lee Ryan and Paul Webster are leading both the East Midlands Association of Motor Clubs and the Association of North East Midlands Motor Clubs championships and a steady run was needed to consolidate their positions.

They achieved this with a successful day which resulted in them finishing in 22nd position (5th in class) having started at 35.

Lee commented that the last time they came to the venue they went off and hit a tree and of course they definitely wanted to avoid a repeat of that.

The rotary engine Mazda RX8 in which Tom Murphy was navigating collected penalties for hitting cones.

Some stages contained loops that were repeated and on one occasion they scattered some cones entering the loop for the first time only to scatter them again a couple of minutes later starting the second loop.

Exuberant driving kept the marshals busy! Despite the penalties and a spin they finish 28th (8th in class) having started at 38.

Jake Simms was navigating for James Easson for the first time and it proved to be a successful partnership as they finish 34th (11th in class) having started at 65.

Whilst the car was only had a three cylinder one litre engine the fact it has a turbocharger meant it had to run in a higher class.

The engine was however almost standard and so would have been significantly less powerful than most of the other cars in that class. There were five apparently more powerful cars in their class that finished below them.